


Thing About Tea Cups

by StrangerStars



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Ficlet, Gen, Protective Newt Scamander, World War I
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 01:30:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20648987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangerStars/pseuds/StrangerStars
Summary: Newt had no use for Divination. But he's also not fool enough to ignore a sign like this, not when it's his brother's life at risk.-Or, Newt assumes Theseus' identity during the war.





	Thing About Tea Cups

Newt has little need for the art of Divination. It had been a rather useless class at Hogwarts, one he had been turned out of long before the doors to Hogwarts had been shut to him. And yet there are some things that stuck with him. The specific flavour dreams can take when influenced by magic. The way bones can speak if you are willing to listen. And the way loose leaf tea can settoe to show you the future, if you look close enough.

Newt had no use for Divination. But he's also not fool enough to ignore a sign like this, not when it's his brother's life at risk. Not with his brother still clutching a letter from the ministry, his marching order's written by a man who will only see the war through letters and moving pictures.

"When are you leaving?" Newt asks, his eyes on the tea cup sitting on the table.

"Less than a fortnight from now." Thesesus says, standing next to the windows and looking out towards the fields where their mother's hippogriffs roam. His face is pale and tired when he asks, "you'll take care of Mum and Dad, won't you?"

"Of course," Newt lies, and vanishes the contents of the cup before Thesus can see the grim residing at the bottom. 

\--

Thesus is the foolish sort, brave and reckless long before he entered the halls of Hogwarts. The hat had deliberated for ages, weighing his bravery and his ambition, just as it had done for their mother years before. Where their mother had gone to green and silver, Thesus had gone to red and gold.

Newt had not been a hat stall. The hat had hummed once, long and thoughtful, before going, "there's only one place for you. Hufflepuff it is."

And as proud as Newt is of being a Hufflepuff- of being fair and loyal, hardworking and patient- that was not all he was. A House could not, and never should have been used to describe a whole. It did not encompass all he was, nor anyone else. Because when it comes right down to it, Newt can be as reckless and foolishly brave as his brother.

In this case, it involves a little trick of sleep magic, a swallow of polyjuice potion, and his brother's wand clutched tightly in his hand. It truly is a simple thing, to just show up ag the ministry in Thesus' place, to check in with the retired Auror turned war general, and to join the others as they gather around a portkey.

It is, Newt will think in retrospect, one of easiest things he's ever done.

It's the war that's the hard part.

-

Thesus' wand loves and loaths him in equal turns. During battle it let's his spells flow, his shields strong and his attacks sharp. During peace, it snaps and bucks like an enraged therestal. It backfires at a simple heating charm and threatens to shatter at something as trivial as an shirt repair.

The wand is nothing like his own and Newt longs for it so fiercely he thinks he might just cave and write for Thesus to send him his own. There have been owls in and out of war zones, pigpens and fowls Newt doesn't quite recognize. He catches glimpses of them at all times day or night, bringing letters from home to soldiers and generals alike.

Newt does not write home and he does not receive letters.

He wonders, in the quiet of the expanded tent, if his brother will ever forgive him for this. If he will even understand.

Newt does not like the answer his mind always gives.

-

Newton Scamander does not train dragons for a war they will never fight. He does not become mummy to a group of fire-breathing beasts that the ministry will cast aside when they do not prove useful enough. He is not offered a ministry postion where he will rise through the ranks and eventually become a Magizoologist who is sponsored to travel the world researching magical creatures.

Newt Scamander was never involved with the war at all. If anyone asks- and there are very few who do- he is a young man who stayed at his mother's estate, helping his mother raise Hippogriffs and his father research never ending uses for Aconte.  
-

Thesus Scamander is hailed a war hero. He is celebrated and lauded and lavished with enough attention to make him sick to his stomach.

Newt passes the burden off at the first chance he gets. He slips the press, retrieves his wand, and stows away his last dose of polyjuice. He does not speak to his parents or Thesus or his beloved Hippogriffs. He enters and exits like a drifting phantom, taking only that which already belonged to him and leaving what never should have been in his possession.

And then Newt does what he's ached to do for months. Newt disappears.

-

Newt Scamander will not be called a war hero. He will not be remembered as a young man fighting on the front lines. People will look at him and see a shy man who would willingly carry deadly beasts in his pockets. They will not see the creature scars raked across his side- the first of many- nor the scattered sharpnel scars from the blast of a muggle grenade. They will not see a man that has seen beasts be used as weapons, shields, and canon fodder, who has seen the world and found it lacking the most basic of compassion.

Newt Scamander will not be remembered as the man who saw a Grim in his brother's teacup and claimed the fate as his own.

But that does not mean he won't be remembered.

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this ages ago after watching the first movie and going, "but what if Newt was the war hero???" I had vague plans for a longer fic, but as I had entirely forgotten about this fic until about 10 minutes ago I decided to just post what existed and leave it at that.


End file.
